Friday, August 3, 2018

The Performance Rubric

A couple of years ago, Daft Punk had one of their greatest performances at Coachella. The stage and energy was intense. The crowd was engaging . Finally, the experience was memorable. Since Daft Punk was able to put on a show, Daft Punk was able to turn their set which was an hour and a half set to a something worth watching for years. Amazing. I bet some of you emerging artists can't do that and we are going to talk about how to modify your performances.About a couple of weeks ago, I was asked to judge a performance and an artist came to me and asked why he didn't place. I told him straight up their was no artist/crowd engagement and his clothes didn't make sense to his set. He wanted to know how I judged performances. This is probably a generic rubric on how judges grade performance at showcases. Some topic overlap with our Music Rubric, so here we go.

Stage Presence: " Who do you utilize the stage or space to enhance your performance"?!

This is very simple. Utilize what space effectively to have the audience understand what your song about. Adding lights or visual background enhances stage presence.

Artist/Crowd Engagement: " How are you interacting with the crowd"?

This part is to show you are not this big artist. Here you should try to have convos with the audience, do some call and respond tracks, or bring another artist are just examples of these.

Production: "Are you rapping/singing or your Mp3 is"?!

This part is where some of ya lose the audience. They can't hear what you saying because you let the production dominate your vocals. You need to lower instrumentals, so we can hear the lyricism and delivery.

Fashion: "What in the world are you wearing"

Understand how you dress and how does this apparel match your music. Example: I dont expect a hipster to wear Timberlands like WTF, that don't match, so be wise on what you put on your body.

Marketability : Again this category, " How does an artist deliver their content to the crowd"

This category is complicated. You are delivering your music, performance and brand. You want to make sure you have things prepared for people to notice it. Flyer, Stickers, and merch would fall in the category.

Creativity/Originality: "When something goes wrong, can you figure out a way to create content"

This can occur when the audience is not engaged, sound messes up! You need to figure out how to bring things in order. Example: A Capella works here.

Potential: One simple question answers this, "Can you and your Performanceinfluence others to book you or have you at their show?" Answer to this can be found in The Performance Effect article

The only way to have a good grade in these categories or have a good performance is to practice your set. Practice will get you ready for the stage and the audience. By doing this constantly, you can do 10, 20 minute, and even 45 minute slots easily. Just practice your craft and follow this rubric, then you are able to guide people to your music. (aka The Performance Effect).